Sustainable development is becoming increasingly important in the development of business strategies. Consequently, transport activities come under particular attention due to its significant role in economic development process and its impacts on the environment. Achieving sustainability in transport sector becomes more challenging given the growing demand for any kind of transport activities. The main aim of this paper is to explore the Iranian transport sector’s sustainability barriers, and evaluate the efficiency of implemented policies and strategies in order to identify the potentials of improvement. For this purpose, an overview of the country and its transport sector in terms of energy consumption and pollutant emissions, which are two main recognized sustainability issues in Iran, will be discussed at first. Then, sustainability barriers are identified. To that end, the case study approach is used, and data are collected through documents analysis and interviewing transport planning and environment management experts. Then, the detected policies and strategies and their efficiency are discussed using the view point of transport and environment management experts by Delphi technique. The research revealed that the growing rate and the age of road vehicle fleet, outdated manufacturing standards, wasteful consumption patterns, traffic and inefficiency of public transport system are the main obstacles in the way of achieving a sustainable transport system in Iran. In addition, according to the viewpoint of experts, renovating deteriorated passenger cars, obligatory vehicle inspections, expanding subway system in metropolitans, renovating public transport vehicles and motivating private sector for investment in public transport were policies who considered having better performance. It is concluded that a sustainable transport system in Iran will be achieved only in case of changing the vehicle production and fuel consumption patterns. Also passenger travel and freight distribution should be shifted to other transport mode.
Sustainability in Iran’s Road Transport Sector: Evaluating Strategies and Policies
MORADI, Afsaneh;
2015
Abstract
Sustainable development is becoming increasingly important in the development of business strategies. Consequently, transport activities come under particular attention due to its significant role in economic development process and its impacts on the environment. Achieving sustainability in transport sector becomes more challenging given the growing demand for any kind of transport activities. The main aim of this paper is to explore the Iranian transport sector’s sustainability barriers, and evaluate the efficiency of implemented policies and strategies in order to identify the potentials of improvement. For this purpose, an overview of the country and its transport sector in terms of energy consumption and pollutant emissions, which are two main recognized sustainability issues in Iran, will be discussed at first. Then, sustainability barriers are identified. To that end, the case study approach is used, and data are collected through documents analysis and interviewing transport planning and environment management experts. Then, the detected policies and strategies and their efficiency are discussed using the view point of transport and environment management experts by Delphi technique. The research revealed that the growing rate and the age of road vehicle fleet, outdated manufacturing standards, wasteful consumption patterns, traffic and inefficiency of public transport system are the main obstacles in the way of achieving a sustainable transport system in Iran. In addition, according to the viewpoint of experts, renovating deteriorated passenger cars, obligatory vehicle inspections, expanding subway system in metropolitans, renovating public transport vehicles and motivating private sector for investment in public transport were policies who considered having better performance. It is concluded that a sustainable transport system in Iran will be achieved only in case of changing the vehicle production and fuel consumption patterns. Also passenger travel and freight distribution should be shifted to other transport mode.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
